Whats the deal with 5150s?

[Reckless_Life]

Its a great amp and if you know how to use it, its not a one trick pony, but it wont make you sound like oldschool Eddie Van Halen.

I'm gonna say that it can.

I'm not a sound engineer, but the web is riddled with EVH-settings for the 5150. I used a standard Stratocaster, fiddled quite a bit with the settings and it was as good as it gets man. This is just at my home, standard gear, not even with pedals like flanger, phaser or whatever fx's eddy used.

As far as it's even possible to reproduce EVH's live sound or his produced studio recordings, not to mention his unique playing style and the fact that he used a 100W Super Lead; the 5150 can get very close to that and more importanly it can do that at "reasonable" volume levels (unlike EVH's Super Lead amp)

 

[TheLoudness!!]

I've had 4 or 5 5150 heads. For what they do, the price can't be beat. I don't care what anybody says, there is NO CLEAN CHANNEL. I've never seen any button with anything to tell me any different. Any attempt at cleans was horrible..

Gain?? One of the best crunch channels ever. I used a Marshall 1960A with Greenbacks and V30's. UNREAL TONE. The 5150 cabs are made decent but the Peavey speakers are god awful. I can't stand them!!

I quit playing them because I didn't want to sound like every other band out there and now desire clean tones. Heavy tones are based really upon technique as well. I'm more into modified Marshall sounds now as the heavy mids slice through a band mix.

All of my 5150 heads had the bias mod done to them. It warmed the amp up. The 5150 in stock form is a FIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ box and the sound bothers my ears to no end.

Bias mod, v30(or v30 and greenback) makes nice tones though!!

 

[diesect20022000]

I've had 4 or 5 5150 heads. For what they do, the price can't be beat. I don't care what anybody says, there is NO CLEAN CHANNEL. I've never seen any button with anything to tell me any different. Any attempt at cleans was horrible..

Gain?? One of the best crunch channels ever. I used a Marshall 1960A with Greenbacks and V30's. UNREAL TONE. The 5150 cabs are made decent but the Peavey speakers are god awful. I can't stand them!!

I quit playing them because I didn't want to sound like every other band out there and now desire clean tones. Heavy tones are based really upon technique as well. I'm more into modified Marshall sounds now as the heavy mids slice through a band mix.

All of my 5150 heads had the bias mod done to them. It warmed the amp up. The 5150 in stock form is a FIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ box and the sound bothers my ears to no end.

Bias mod, v30(or v30 and greenback) makes nice tones though!!

i got bone clean tones out of mine but it had ZERO tone. sounded like a cardoard box. otherwise yeah agreed. I think feel you can get cleans they just sound like ass.

 

[RussBert]

I bought my son a 5150 in 2000 when he was still in high school, paired it with a 1960a/v cab (V30's) I had a bias pot installed, and I could indeed play "classic rock" with that amp. I agree with TheLoudness!! about the "clean" channel. It is wimpy.

That amp was stolen, and my son replaced it with a 5150II. Again, I did a bias adjust mod...then messed around with the circuit. That amp has very useable cleans and a Killer crunch channel.

We put a pair of Weber Michigan's in the cab, too back around '05. They reall add some tight bass. They pair very well with the V30's


The power tubes are PCB mounted, albeit on a separate PCB. The construction is very durable and easy to service. Here's some gut shouts,

LOOK! a choke,

 

[Maggot Brain]

I discovered how dynamic this amp can be on the lead channel. I like to run MV hot and pull off the preamp, so its a little more power tube distortion. Got a great "classic rock", almost jcm like sound. I can play lightly and get a slightly over driven cleanish crunch sound, then pluck nice and hard and its full on huge tight distortion.

 

[diesect20022000]

yeah if i get a 5150 again it'll be the II. I never liked the 5150 as much as the second even though all the other metal kids i know prefer the first one.

 

[blackie13]

The secret of the 5150 for classic rock is the volume knob of your guitar...
I use nothing but the lead channel with a low output pickup I can play accept-rainbow-manowar-styx without moving the knobs a bit...
Just the volume knob...

 

[diesect20022000]

The secret of the 5150 for classic rock is the volume knob of your guitar...
I use nothing but the lead channel with a low output pickup I can play accept-rainbow-manowar-styx without moving the knobs a bit...
Just the volume knob...

agreed. i even got USEABLE cleans on the crunch channel. I also used the crunch channel for leads.

the other key is a bias mod and warming them up from the factory 12-19ma to around 32ma.

I still don't think they have GOOD cleans but completely useable cleans YES and they take FX quite well imo.

i got lots of great toes form mine. I prefered the 5150II's though. It's reasonable to use the volume knob anyway as that's what Eddie does to get "clean" tones etc.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

I actually found that rolling back on the guitar volume yielded better cleans than running the clean channel with the guitar volume on 10. However, the volume difference going from 10 on the guitar volume down to cleaner tones on the lead channel leads to a massive drop in volume. If only there was a way to boost the volume to compensate for the volume drop...

 

[Bigbazz]

I'l give you a tip about the 5150, the best clean sounds are not necessarily on the clean channel, they are on the lead channel with the volume rolled back, I ditched the clean channel a long time ago on mine and was using only the volume knob on the guitar for cleans while playing live, as I hated the clunky weirdness of switching channels, and the lead channel sounds better for clean anyway.

My 5150 is currently not working properly (as of about a week or so ago), and this year got replaced by a Cornford Hellcat as my main amp anyway, but the 5150 is certaintly an amp that I love and can coax many different sounds out of, though I never really used it outside of the lead channel in the past few years.


Edit : I just saw above, another poster mentioning the lead channel for cleans, thats where its at.

 

[blackie13]

I do the same thing as bigbazz...lead channel only-volume knob...
I always laugh when I hear that 5150 series of amps are one trick ponies...
The amp is very sensitive when it comes to pickups...not in the eq of the pickup but in the output...if you use a high or even medium output pickup you always get that over saturated chagga-chugga...even with a JB I couldn't make the sound not as processed as it always was...
If you wanna play EVERYTHING with this amp use low output pickups...

 

[Sir Crunch A Lot]

5150/6505 is a killer amp. The are supposed to be biased cold with cross over distortion, like the Soldano's. An amp doesn't become legendary or recorded as much as these amps have if they don't deliver the goods.

 

[TNTROY]

I seen this and just had to reply. I have a Peavey 5150 212 combo. and love it. I can get some good cleans (not loud cleans) all the way up to metal. Mostly i play AC/DC style or classic rock and i have found it is as close to a marshall sound that any amp i have ever owned. I can nail the early AC/DC tone with it (with a little reverb i can nail Highway To Hell tone of Angus). I am planing on selling my combo and getting a Head version. I have already have the 5150 slant cab.. I am torn between script and block lettering tho...

I was gonna go with marshall 1960a but found a heck of a deal on the 5150 slant cab. so now i am planning on going with a Peavey 5150 head. I tried to find a Marshall head but everything i have found on Craigslitst is way to high. i can find a 5150 head for around 500 bucks. So i am gonna have to go with Peavey again.

 

[mott555]

I had a fair amount of experience with a 6505+ (also known as the 5150 II) and even on the clean channel it had an extreme amount of compression. I play mainly with a DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAF so it's not exactly a high-output pickup. I like compression but not all the time (I prefer pedal compression I can toggle on and off at will), so for me it was not the right amp to be a main amp. It could do classic rock/metal stuff using the crunch channel with low gain (just don't expect any dynamics), but a Marshall definitely does it better.

I've never used an original 5150 or the newer 5150 III's so I can't comment on those. Also, old topic is old, and I seem to like making parenthetical statements.

 

[rensklaassen]

It's not that I don't like the 5150 sound.. But I hate the fact Eddie's playing the coolest VH1 licks without a 1959SLP like he's supposed to be.. He created the coolest metal amp but definitly not the coolest Van Halen amp.. ( Shit his name is Van Halen so it actually is a real Van Halen amp xD )

 

[rensklaassen]

A Different kind of Truth album sounds a lot heavier than VH1,2, Women and Children First.... bet it has a lot to do with the 5150 and Alex's drums..

 

[dreyn77]

I just played the dvd's VH live 2008 and Ted Nugent 2012. they are sounds from the opposite ends of the sound spectrum. Ted has a grunty growl sound and Ed has a cocked wah sound.
THey both have heavy mids power sounds.
when ted plays stranglehold, it sounds pretty close to the recording from all those years ago that was recorded on a fender, so I'm affraid the 5150 is a fender high gain clone/tone.

it has nothing to do with VH's recorded career just his personal private fender practice amp usage.
basically it's a big fender amp. and that's why ted nugent uses them.

 

[dreyn77]

Ted's sound is extremely bass heavy! with some mids and almost NO trebles.
from there its very powerful and you hear some treble to the notes. a good trick.

the amp has been turned down internally and so too have the speakers.

so you want some sort of a balanced tone you have to turn those EQ dials to 10.
the 1 trick pony is correct!

VH's traditional tone is a treble heavy sound. the total opposite too the 5150 sound.

I think I might leave those sheffield speakers at the shop...

 

[Tone Slinger]

Eds '76-'79 tone was a great overall combination of things. Running a 100 watt (sometimes a smallbox 50) Marshall full blast with the variac lowering the voltage (B+). Nice breakup from 25 watt celestions that comes only from sheer bludgeoning of volume, etc. He basically 'tuned' his guitar to that type set up. IMO, he sounded much better with the vintage 6 screw Fender tremelo and the tunomatic style bridge on his Destroyer. It was,imo, one of the sweetest,most dynamic distortions of all time. He truly was able to refine the 'old school' Marshall tone.

Ted obviously was using Fender amps, like said. Higher plate voltages, etc. That combined with the old Altec and Jensen (or other ?) speakers produced a much 'boxier' type tone. The Byrdland also was a unique guitar to play on in the '70's. I definately digged Ted's tone back then.

I honestly dont really care much about either dudes current sound. That has nothing to do with the amps they are using now either (well not 'much'). I have heard guy's get convincing vintage VH tone out of the new 5150's. The secret to get any multi preamp gain stage amp to sounding BROWN is to back WAY WAY WAY off of the preamp gain.

 

[dreyn77]

Yeah the gain is influencing the nastyness in the sound, and that's all that is different between ed's new sound and his old sound.

the sheffield 1200 speakers are just relabeled vintage 30's. they are in the peavey floor monitors too.

So ed's pickups were just schaller versions and the amp was EQ radically towards the fender EQ the speakers were neutral EQ.
that meant ED got his double mids and reduced trebles with his setup. he was
the extra gain was what made it sound bright and nasty.

So when Ted plays the 6505plus setup with a stock gibson pickup the sound is doublebass half mids and one quarter treble. (typical fender tone)

so guys are getting nasty sounds from the 6505 setups because they are not using the vh pickups.

it's also the reason for the latest 6505 to be re-EQed. back to neutral EQ.

SO it's no wonder the metallica heads are going out and using the 6505 amps. the sound is right there, you don't need a 'ride the lightning pedal'.

the name for the sheffield speakers originates from the first good english speaker which was copied by the americans and then celestion copied it too and then renamed it vintage 30.

all VH mysteries are solved!